Search results for: building materials industry

Authors: Suboohi Nasrin, MHD. Shahid, Abduraheem K.

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India is a tropical country, and it is estimated that biological and abiological agents are the major factors in the destruction and deterioration of archival materials like herbarium, paper, cellulose, bookbinding, etc. Silverfish, German Cockroaches, Termites, Booklice, Tobacco beetle and Carpet beetles are the common insect's pests in the museum, which causes deterioration to collections of museum specimens. Among them, silverfish is one of the most notorious pests and primarily responsible for the deterioration of Archival materials. So far, the investigation has been carried to overcome this existing problem as different management strategies such as chemical insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, nematicides, etc., have been applied. Moreover, Synthetic molecules lead to affect the ecological balance, have a detrimental effects on human health, reduce the beneficial microbial flora and fauna, etc. With a view, numbers of chemicals have been banned and advised not to be used due to their long-lasting persistency in soil ecosystem, water and carcinogenic. That’s why the authors used natural products with biocidal activity, cost-effective and eco-friendly approaches. In this study, various concentrations (30, 60 and 90 ml/L) of clove and lemongrass essential oil at different treatment duration (30, 60, 90 and 120-minutes) were investigated to test its properties as a silverfish repellent and insecticidal effect. The result of two ways ANOVA revealed that the mortality was significantly influenced by oil concentration, treatment duration and interaction between two independent factors was also found significant. The mortality rate increased with increasing the oil concentration in clove oil, and 100 % mortality was recorded in 0.9 ml at 120-minute. It was also observed that the treatment duration has the highest effect on the mortality rate of silverfish. The clove oil had the greatest effect on the silverfish in comparison to lemongrass. While in the case of percentage, repellency of adult silverfish was oil concentration and treatment duration-dependent, i.e., increase in concentration and treatment duration resulted in higher repellency percentage. The clove oil was found more effective, showing maximum repellency of 80.00% at 0.9ml/cm2 (highest) concentration, and in lemongrass highest repellency was observed at 33.4% at 0.9 ml/cm2 concentration in the treated area.

Keywords: adult silverfish, oils, oil concentration, treatment duration, mortality (%) and repellency

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Authors: H. Nikzad, S. Yoshitomi

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This study investigates and develops the structural optimization method. The effect of size constraints on practical solution of reinforced concrete (RC) building structure with shear wall is proposed. Cross-sections of beam and column, and thickness of shear wall are considered as design variables. The objective function to be minimized is total cost of the structure by using a simple and efficient automated MATLAB platform structural optimization methodology. With modification of mathematical formulations, the result is compared with optimal solution without size constraints. The most suitable combination of section sizes is selected as for the final design application based on linear static analysis. The findings of this study show that defining higher value of upper bound of sectional sizes significantly affects optimal solution, and defining of size constraints play a vital role in finding of global and practical solution during optimization procedures. The result and effectiveness of proposed method confirm the ability and efficiency of optimal solutions for 3D RC shear wall-frame structure.

Keywords: structural optimization, linear static analysis, ETABS, MATLAB, RC shear wall-frame structures

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Authors: Malo Pocheau-Lesteven, Olivier Le Maître

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Engineering and optimisation of complex systems is often achieved through multi-disciplinary analysis of the system, where each subsystem is modeled and interacts with other subsystems to model the complete system. The coherence of the output of the different sub-systems is achieved through the use of compatibility constraints, which enforce the coupling between the different subsystems. Due to the complexity of some sub-systems and the computational cost of evaluating their respective models, it is often necessary to build surrogate models of these subsystems to allow repeated evaluation these subsystems at a relatively low computational cost. In this paper, gaussian processes are used, as their probabilistic nature is leveraged to evaluate the likelihood of satisfying the compatibility constraints. This paper presents infilling strategies to build accurate surrogate models of the subsystems in areas where they are likely to meet the compatibility constraint. It is shown that these infilling strategies can reduce the computational cost of building surrogate models for a given level of accuracy. An application of these methods to velocity prediction programs used in offshore racing naval architecture further demonstrates these method's applicability in a real engineering context. Also, some examples of the application of uncertainty quantification to field of naval architecture are presented.

Keywords: infilling strategy, gaussian process, multi disciplinary analysis, velocity prediction program

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Authors: Pinn Tsin Isabel Yee

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Students are increasingly turning towards online learning materials to supplement their education. One such approach would be the gamified student engagement platforms (GSEPs) to instill a new learning culture. Data was collected from closed-ended questions via content analysis techniques. About 81.8% of college students from the Monash University Foundation Year agreed that GSEPs (Quizizz) was an effective tool for learning. Approximately 85.5% of students disagreed that games were a waste of time. GSEPs were highly effective among students to facilitate the learning process.

Keywords: engagement, gamified, Quizizz, technology

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Authors: Nihan Gurel Ulusan

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It is obvious that electrical energy, which is an inseparable part of modern day’s human and also the most important power source of our age, should be generated on a level that will suffice the nation’s requirements. The electrical energy used for a sustainable architectural design should be reduced as much as possible. Designing the buildings as energy efficient systems which aim at reducing the artificial illumination loads has been a current subject of our times as a result of concepts gaining importance like conscious consumption of energy sources, environment-friendly designs and sustainability. Reducing the consumption of electrical energy regarding the artificial lighting carries great significance, especially in the volumes which are used all day long like the educational buildings. Starting out with such an aim in this paper, the educational buildings are explored in terms of energy efficient lighting. Firstly, illumination techniques, illumination systems, light sources, luminaries, illumination controls and 'efficient energy' usage in lighting are mentioned. In addition, natural and artificial lighting systems used in educational buildings and also the spaces building up these kind buildings are examined in terms of energy efficient lighting. Lastly, the illumination properties of the school sample chosen for this study, Kağıthane Anadolu Lisesi, a typical high school in Istanbul, is observed. Suggestions are made in order to improve the system by evaluating the illumination properties of the classes with the survey carried out with the users.

Keywords: educational buildings, energy efficient, illumination techniques, lighting

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Authors: Ririh Rahma Ratinghayu, Jayu Pramudya, Nur Aini Masruroh, Shi-Woei Lin

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This research studies pricing strategy in cooperative setting of hotel duopoly selling perishable product under fixed capacity constraint by using the perspective of managers. In hotel revenue management, competitor’s average room rate and occupancy rate should be taken into manager’s consideration in determining pricing strategy to generate optimum revenue. This information is not provided by business intelligence or available in competitor’s website. Thus, Information Sharing (IS) among players might result in improved performance of pricing strategy. IS is widely adopted in the logistics industry, but IS within hospitality industry has not been well-studied. This research put IS as one of cooperative game schemes, besides Mutual Price Setting (MPS) scheme. In off-peak season, hotel manager arranges pricing strategy to offer promotion package and various kinds of discounts up to 60% of full-price to attract customers. Competitor selling homogenous product will react the same, then triggers a price war. Price war which generates lower revenue may be avoided by creating collaboration in pricing strategy to optimize payoff for both players. In MPS cooperative game, players collaborate to set a room rate applied for both players. Cooperative game may avoid unfavorable players’ payoff caused by price war. Researches on horizontal cooperative game in logistics show better performance and payoff for the players, however, horizontal cooperative game in hotel revenue management has not been demonstrated. This paper aims to develop hotel revenue management models under duopoly cooperative schemes (IS & MPS), which are compared to models under non-cooperative scheme too. Each scheme has five models, Capacity Allocation Model; Demand Model; Revenue Model; Optimal Price Model; and Equilibrium Price Model. Capacity Allocation Model and Demand Model employs self-hotel and competitor’s full and discount price as predictors under non-linear relation. Optimal price is obtained by assuming revenue maximization motive. Equilibrium price is observed by interacting self-hotel’s and competitor’s optimal price under reaction equation. Equilibrium is analyzed using game theory approach. The sequence applies for three schemes. MPS Scheme differently aims to optimize total players’ payoff. The case study in which theoretical models are applied observes two hotels offering homogenous product in Indonesia during a year. The Capacity Allocation, Demand, and Revenue Models are built using multiple regression and statistically tested for validation. Case study data confirms that price behaves within demand model in a non-linear manner. IS Models can represent the actual demand and revenue data better than Non-IS Models. Furthermore, IS enables hotels to earn significantly higher revenue. Thus, duopoly hotel players in general, might have reasonable incentives to share information horizontally. During off-peak season, MPS Models are able to predict the optimal equal price for both hotels. However, Nash equilibrium may not always exist depending on actual payoff of adhering or betraying mutual agreement. To optimize performance, horizontal cooperative game may be chosen over non-cooperative game. Mathematical models can be used to detect collusion among business players. Empirical testing can be used as policy input for market regulator in preventing unethical business practices potentially harming society welfare.

Keywords: horizontal cooperative game theory, hotel revenue management, information sharing, mutual price setting

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Authors: A. B. Bazaralieva, A. A. Turgumbayeva

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The phytosubstance from garlic was obtained by extraction with liquid carbon dioxide under critical conditions. Methods of processing raw materials are proposed, and the chemical composition of garlic is studied by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The garlic extract's composition was determined using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS). The phytosubstance had 54 constituents. The extract included the following main compounds: Manool (39.56%), Viridifrolol (7%), Podocarpa-1,8,11,13-tetraen-3-one, 14-isopropyl-1,13-dimethoxy- 5,15 percent, (+)-2-Bornanone (4.29%), Thujone (3.49%), Linolic acid ethyl ester (3.41%), and 12-O-Methylcarn.

Keywords: Allium sativum, bioactive compounds of garlic, carbon dioxide extraction of garlic, GS-MS method

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Authors: Javad Someehneshin, Weizhou Quan, Abdelsalam Abugharara, Stephen Butt

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Narrow vein mining (NVM) is exploiting very thin but valuable ore bodies that are uneconomical to extract by conventional mining methods. NVM applies the technique of Sustainable Mining by Drilling (SMD). The SMD method is used to mine stranded, steeply dipping ore veins, which are too small or isolated to mine economically using conventional methods since the dilution is minimized. This novel mining technique uses drilling rigs to extract the ore through directional drilling surgically. This paper is focusing on utilizing the run of the mine tailings and Portland cement as backfill material to support the hanging wall for providing safe mine operation. Cemented paste backfill (CPB) is designed by mixing waste tailings, water, and cement of the precise percentage for optimal outcomes. It is a non-homogenous material that contains 70-85% solids. Usually, a hydraulic binder is added to the mixture to increase the strength of the CPB. The binder fraction mostly accounts for 2–10% of the total weight. In the mining industry, CPB has been improved and expanded gradually because it provides safety and support for the mines. Furthermore, CPB helps manage the waste tailings in an economical method and plays a significant role in environmental protection.

Keywords: backfilling, cement backfill, tailings, Portland cement

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Authors: Edmund Kwablah, Anthony Amoah

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The merits associated with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to host countries in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot be overemphasized. Against this background, countries have sought to design and implement strategic policies geared towards enhacing FDI and promoting economic growth. In this study, we used the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares technique and a panel data for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries spanning from 1998 to 2016. We hypothesize that FDI’s effect on economic growth is contingent on some absorptive capacities (e.g., financial market development and economic freedom) of the host country. We used financial market data that accounts for market fragility as a measure of financial market development and economic freedom data which uses the overall score of all the freedom indicators as a measure of economic freedom. Our results suggest that FDI has a statistically positive effect on economic growth when we account for host country’s absorptive capacities. However, a negative relationship will ensue if these absorptive capacities are not accounted for. We recommend that a developing continent like SSA should focus on identifying and building the relevant absorptive capacities that can translate the effect of FDI into a positive growth. This is because an economy with sound absorptive capacities reduces business risk and spur economic growth.

Keywords: FDI, absorptive capacity, economic growth, FMOLS, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares, SSA

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Authors: Zeynep Ozkan, Cigdem Serra Uzunpinar

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Citizenship is a legal bond that binds a person to a certain state. How constitutions define ‘the citizen’ and how they regulate the elements of citizenship have great importance in terms of individuals’ duties before the state as well as the rights they own. Especially in multi-segmented societies that contain foreign elements, it becomes necessary to examinate the institution of naturalization in terms of individuals’ duty of constitutional citizenship. The meaning of citizenship in Turkey has transformed due to the changes in practices of naturalization, in parallel to receiving huge amount of immagrants with the recent Syrian Crisis, the change in the governmental system and facing economic crisis. This transformation took place in the way of a diversion from the states’ initial motive of building the bond of citizenship with the aim of founding/sustaining political unity. Hence, rising of the economic and political motives in naturalization practices are in question, instead of objective and subjective criterias, that are traditionally used on defining the notion of nation. In this study, firstly the regime of citizenship and the legal regime of aliens in Turkish legislation will be given place. Then, the transformation, that the notion of constitutional citizenship underwent, will be studied, especially on the basis of governmental practices of naturalization. The assessment will be made in the context of legal institutions brought with the new governmental system as a result of recent constitutional amendment.

Keywords: constitutional citizenship, naturalization, naturalization practices in Turkish legal system, transformation of the notion of constitutional citizenship

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Authors: Michelle Zeyuan Ma, Hermann Heilmeier

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Recently, meat production ecosystem impacts initiated many hot discussions and researchers, and it is a difficult implementation to reduce such impacts due to the demand of meat products. It calls for better management and control of ecosystem impacts from every aspects of meat production. This article analyzes the ecosystem impacts of meat production based on meat products life cycle. The analysis shows that considerable ecosystem impacts are caused by different meat production steps: initial establishment phase, animal raising, slaughterhouse processing, meat consumption, and wastes management. Based on this analysis, the impacts are summarized as: leading factor for biodiversity loss; water waste, land use waste and land degradation; greenhouse gases emissions; pollution to air, water, and soil; related major diseases. The article also provides a discussion on a solution-sustainable food system, which could help in reducing ecosystem impacts. The analysis method is based on the life cycle level, it provides a concept of the whole meat industry ecosystem impacts, and the analysis result could be useful to manage or control meat production ecosystem impacts from investor, producer and consumer sides.

Keywords: eutrophication, life cycle based analysis, sustainable food, waste management

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Authors: David Yartel

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Drawing on the current state of software engineering and information technology in Ghana, the study documents its significant contribution to the development of Ghanaian industries. The study focuses on the application of modern trends in technology and the barriers faced in the area of software engineering and information technology. A thorough analysis of a dozen of interviews with stakeholders in software engineering and information technology via interviews reveals how modern trends in software engineering pose challenges to the industry in Ghana. Results show that to meet the expectation of modern software engineering and information technology trends, stakeholders must have skilled professionals, adequate infrastructure, and enhanced support for technology startups. Again, individuals should be encouraged to pursue a career in software engineering and information technology, as it has the propensity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of work-related activities. This study recommends that stakeholders in software engineering and technology industries should invest enough in training more professionals by collaborating with international institutions well-versed in the area by organizing frequent training and seminars. The government should also provide funding opportunities for small businesses in the technology sector to drive creativity and development in order to bring about growth and development.

Keywords: software engineering, information technology, Ghana, development

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Authors: Jaqueline Maria Ribeiro Vieira

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Different strategies and tools are available at the oil and gas industry for detecting and analyzing tension and possible fractures in borehole walls. Most of these techniques are based on manual observation of the captured borehole images. While this strategy may be possible and convenient with small images and few data, it may become difficult and suitable to errors when big databases of images must be treated. While the patterns may differ among the image area, depending on many characteristics (drilling strategy, rock components, rock strength, etc.). Previously we developed and proposed a novel strategy capable of detecting patterns at borehole images that may point to regions that have tension and breakout characteristics, based on segmented images. In this work we propose the inclusion of data-mining classification strategies in order to create a knowledge database of the segmented curves. These classifiers allow that, after some time using and manually pointing parts of borehole images that correspond to tension regions and breakout areas, the system will indicate and suggest automatically new candidate regions, with higher accuracy. We suggest the use of different classifiers methods, in order to achieve different knowledge data set configurations.

Keywords: image segmentation, oil well visualization, classifiers, data-mining, visual computer

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Authors: Christine Okello

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Physical Education (PE) curriculum provides school age students to explore issues that are likely to impact on health, safety, and well-being. The current curriculum includes the physical activity component, intended to improve physical fitness, social skills as well as building confidence. While this viewpoint is vital, there are challenges and stigma attached when specific issues are either ignored, inadequately addressed, or not seen to be important. The department stipulates that students attend a school that is closest to their home, to access available government transportation to and from school. Equivalently, parents of students with a disability decide where their children attend school. A choice between a regular classroom, mainstream Special Unit classroom, or a School for Specific Purposes (SSP). Parents who take their children to regular schools may be oblivious of the details of the curriculum. Physical Education outcomes does not stipulate the extent to which a student must perform or expected to perform. It is therefore due to the classroom teacher to adjust their teaching goals or outcomes to suit all students in their classroom. A student who can run a hundred meters race in 20 seconds may belong in the same classroom as a student in a wheelchair. While these students are challenged because of a lack of performance, teachers are challenged to effectively teach successful PE lessons, and on the other hand students without a disability may not be able to attain their optimum. This paper will identify areas of need, address the challenges, and explore a possible solution.

Keywords: special needs, disability, challenges, physical education

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Authors: Martin Tazky, Rudolf Hela, Lucia Osuska, Petr Novosad

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Concrete’s volumetric changes are natural process caused by silicate minerals’ hydration. These changes can lead to cracking and subsequent destruction of cementitious material’s matrix. In most cases, cracks can be assessed as a negative effect of hydration, and in all cases, they lead to an acceleration of degradation processes. Preventing the formation of these cracks is, therefore, the main effort. Once of the possibility how to eliminate this natural concrete shrinkage process is by using different types of dispersed reinforcement. For this application of concrete shrinking, steel and polymer reinforcement are preferably used. Despite ordinarily used reinforcement in concrete to eliminate shrinkage it is possible to look at this specific problematic from the beginning by itself concrete mix composition. There are many secondary raw materials, which are helpful in reduction of hydration heat and also with shrinkage of concrete during curing. The new science shows the possibilities of shrinkage reduction also by the controlled formation of hydration products, which could act by itself morphology as a traditionally used dispersed reinforcement. This contribution deals with the possibility of controlled formation of mono- and tri-sulfate which are considered like degradation minerals. Mono- and tri- sulfate's controlled formation in a cementitious composite can be classified as a self-healing ability. Its crystal’s growth acts directly against the shrinking tension – this reduces the risk of cracks development. Controlled formation means that these crystals start to grow in the fresh state of the material (e.g. concrete) but stop right before it could cause any damage to the hardened material. Waste materials with the suitable chemical composition are very attractive precursors because of their added value in the form of landscape pollution’s reduction and, of course, low cost. In this experiment, the possibilities of using the fly ash from fluidized bed combustion as a mono- and tri-sulphate formation additive were investigated. The experiment itself was conducted on cement paste and concrete and specimens were subjected to a thorough analysis of physicomechanical properties as well as microstructure from the moment of mixing up to 180 days. In cement composites, were monitored the process of hydration and shrinkage. In a mixture with the used admixture of fluidized bed combustion fly ash, possible failures were specified by electronic microscopy and dynamic modulus of elasticity. The results of experiments show the possibility of shrinkage concrete reduction without using traditionally dispersed reinforcement.

Keywords: shrinkage, monosulphates, trisulphates, self-healing, fluidized fly ash

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Authors: Siva Sankara Arudra, Kamaruzaman Baharuddin, Ir. Ahmed Fadzil Mustafa Kamal, Ir. Abdul Latif Mohamed

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The advancement of electrical and electronics technologies has rewarded the oil and gas industry with great opportunities to embed more environmentally solutions into design. Most offshore oil and gas producers have their engineering and production asset goals to promote greater use of environmentally friendly compression system technologies to eliminate hazardous emissions from conventional gas compressor drivers. Therefore, this paper comprehensively elaborates the parametric study conducted in integrating the latest electrical and electronics drives technology into the existing compression system. This study was conducted in aspects of layout, reliability & availability, maintainability, emission, and cost. An existing offshore facility that utilized gas turbines as the driver for gas compression was set as Conventional Case for this study. The Electrification Case will utilize electric motor drives as the driver for the compression system. Findings from this study indicate more advantages in driver electrification compared to conventional compression systems. The findings of this paper can be set as a benchmark for future offshore driver selection for gas compression systems of similar operating parameters and power range.

Keywords: turbomachinery, electrification, emission, compression system

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Authors: Aileen Editha

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The legal recognition of property rights over human genes is a divisive topic to which there is no resolution. As a frequently discussed topic, scholars and practitioners often highlight the inadequacies of a proprietary regime. However, little has been said in regard to the nature of human genetic materials (HGMs). This paper proposes approaching the issue of property over HGMs from an alternative perspective that looks at the personal and social value and valuation of HGMs. This paper will highlight how the unique and unresolved status of HGMs is incompatible with the main tenets of property and, consequently, contributes to legal ambiguity and uncertainty in the regulation of property rights over human genes. HGMs are perceived as part of nature and a free-for-all while also being within an individual’s private sphere. Additionally, it is also considered to occupy a unique “not-private-nor-public” status. This limbo-like position clashes with property’s fundamental characteristic that relies heavily on a clear public/private dichotomy. Moreover, as property is intrinsically linked to the legal recognition of one’s personhood, this irresolution benefits some while disadvantages others. In particular, it demands the publicization of once-private genes for the “common good” but subsequently encourages privatization (through labor) of these now-public genes. This results in the gain of some (already privileged) individuals while enabling the disenfranchisement of members of minority groups, such as Indigenous communities. This paper will discuss real and intellectual property rights over human genes, such as the right to income or patent rights, in Canada and the US. This paper advocates for a sui generis approach to governing rights and interests over human genes that would not rely on having a strict public/private dichotomy. Not only would this improve legal certainty and clarity, but it would also alleviate—or, at the very least, minimize—the role that the current law plays in further entrenching existing systemic inequalities. Despite the specificity of this topic, this paper argues that there are broader lessons to be learned. This issue is an insightful case study on the interconnection of various principles in law, society, and property, and what must be done when discordance between one or more of those principles has detrimental societal outcomes. Ultimately, it must be remembered that property is an adaptable and malleable instrument that can be developed to ensure it contributes to equity and flourishing.

Keywords: property rights, human genetic materials, critical legal scholarship, systemic inequalities

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Authors: Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan, Benqian Li

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Advancement of new media technology and consumption of social media have altered the way of communication in the tourism industry, mostly for consumers’ travel planning, online purchase, and experience sharing activity. There is an accelerating trend among young consumers’ to utilize this new media technology. This paper aims to analyze the attitude of young consumers’ about social media use for travel purposes. The convenience random sample method used to collect data from an urban area of Shanghai (China), consists of 225 young consumers’. This survey identified behavioral determinants of social media consumption by the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). The instrument developed support on previous research to test hypotheses. The results of structural analyses indicate that attitude towards the use of social media is affected by external factors such as availability and accessibility of technology. In addition, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have partially influenced the attitude of respondents’. The results of this study could help to improve social media travel marketing and promotional strategies for respective groups.

Keywords: social media, theory of planned behavior, travel behavior, young consumer

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Authors: Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad

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Back in history, muscular and strong male body has always been used to promulgate masculinity; for physically representing supreme manliness there were not many other options. This idealized male figure was proliferated mainly for spreading the notion of male superiority in relation to power and to give a strong base to the social construction of masculinity. This study targets to disclose the perception about the attributes masculinities among the male students of Dhaka city regarding male beautification. It is an attempt to unveil young men’s perspectives regarding their masculinities and beauty. Till the very recent past, beauty was always seen as sole feminine trait in Bangladeshi society. From history we can see men have always been assumed as the ambassador of roughness but in recent time the emergence of fashion-conscious men can be seen, who are slowly occupying a handsome position in the society. Concerning study attempts to bring out the way in which such changing trend of male beauty is perceived among the male students of Dhaka city. What could be the ideologies of these young men who are being involved with it? What is influencing them to be part of such arena which, to a great extent, is still considered as female domain? Is their perception about construction of masculinity is shifting from the so called idealized masculinity? The study tries to find out the answers.

Keywords: masculinity, male beauty, Bangladesh, identity, body

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Authors: Anukriti Kumar, Tanmay Singh, Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma

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Traffic control has been one of the most common and irritating problems since the time automobiles have hit the roads. Problems like traffic congestion have led to a significant time burden around the world and one significant solution to these problems can be the proper implementation of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS). It involves the integration of various tools like smart sensors, artificial intelligence, position technologies and mobile data services to manage traffic flow, reduce congestion and enhance driver's ability to avoid accidents during adverse weather. Road and traffic signs’ recognition is an emerging field of research in ITS. Classification problem of traffic signs needs to be solved as it is a major step in our journey towards building semi-autonomous/autonomous driving systems. The purpose of this work focuses on implementing an approach to solve the problem of traffic sign classification by developing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier using the GTSRB (German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark) dataset. Rather than using hand-crafted features, our model addresses the concern of exploding huge parameters and data method augmentations. Our model achieved an accuracy of around 97.6% which is comparable to various state-of-the-art architectures.

Keywords: multiclass classification, convolution neural network, OpenCV

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Authors: J. Burlakovs, Y. Jani, L. Grinberga, M. Kriipsalu, O. Anne, I. Grinfelde, W. Hogland

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The worldwide future sustainable economies are oriented towards the sea: the maritime economy is becoming one of the strongest driving forces in many regions as population growth is the highest in coastal areas. For hundreds of years sea resources were depleted unsustainably by fishing, mining, transportation, tourism, and waste. European Sustainable Development Strategy is identifying and developing actions to enable the EU to achieve a continuous, long-term improvement of the quality of life through the creation of sustainable communities. The aim of this paper is to provide insight in Baltic Sea Region case studies on implemented actions on tourism industry waste and beach wrack management in coastal areas, hazardous contaminants and plastic flow treatment from waste, wastewaters and stormwaters. These projects mentioned in study promote successful prevention of contaminant flows to the sea environments and provide perspectives for creation of valuable new products from residuals for future circular economy are the step forward to green innovation winning streak.

Keywords: resilience, hazardous waste, phytoremediation, water management, circular economy

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Authors: Marcin Kruszewski, Barbara Sochanowicz, Sylwia Męczyńska-Wielgosz, Maria Wojewódzka, Lucyna Kapka-Skrzypczak

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Metallic NPs are widely used in a number of applications in industry, science and medicine. Among metallic NPs foreseen to be widely used in medicine are gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) due to their low toxicity, and silver NPs (AgNPs) due to their strong antimicrobial activity. In this study, we compared an effect of AgNPs and gold NPs (AuNPs) on the formation of DNA damage and global DNA methylation and in A2780 and 4T1 cell lines, widely used models of human ovarian carcinoma and murine mammary carcinoma, respectively. The cells were treated with AgNPs coated with citrate (AgNPs(cit) or PEG (AgNPs(PEG), or AuNPs. A global DNA methylation was investigated with ELISA, whereas the formation of DNA damage was investigated by a comet +/- FPG. AgNPs decreased global DNA methylation and increased the formation of DNA lesions in both cell lines. The effect was dependent on the type of NPs used, it's coating, and cell line used. In conclusion, the epigenetic and genotoxic effects of NPs strongly depends on NP nature and cellular context. Epigenetic changes observed upon the action of AgNPs may play a crucial role in NPs-induced changes in protein expression.

Keywords: DNA damage, gold nanoparticles, methylation, silver nanoparticles

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Authors: Thanasuwit Thabhiranrak

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This research aims to study factors that affected the operations of the cassava industrial enterprises in northeast of Thailand. Hypothesis was tested by regress analysis and also the analysis in order to determine the relationship between variables with Pearson correlation and show a class action in cassava process including the owner of business executives and supervisors. The research samples were 400 people in northeast region of Thailand. The research results revealed that success of entrepreneurs related to transformation leadership and knowledge management in a positive way at statistical significance level of 0.01 and respondents also emphasized on the importance of transformational leadership factors. The individual and the use of intelligence affect the success of entrepreneurs in cassava industry at statistical significance level of 0.05. The qualitative data were also collected by interviewing with operational level staff, supervisors, executives, and enterprise owners in the northeast of Thailand. The result was found that knowledge management was important in their business operations. Personnel in the organizations should learn from working experience, develop their skills, and increase knowledge from education.

Keywords: transformational leadership, knowledge management (KM), cassava, northeast of Thailand, industrial

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Authors: Rizka Ardhiyana, Liesbetini Haditjaroko, Sri Mulijani, Reki Ashadi Wicaksono, Raafqi Ranasasmita

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Designing a sensitive, specific and easy to use method to detect pork contamination in the food industry remains a major challenge. In the current study, we developed a sensitive thiol-bond AuNP-Probe biosensor that will change color when detecting pork DNA in the Cytochrome B region. The interaction between the biosensors and DNA sample is measured by spectrophotometer at 540 nm. The biosensor is made by reducing gold with trisodium citrate to produce gold nanoparticle with 39.05 nm diameter. The AuNP-Probe biosensor (gold nanoprobe) achieved 16.04 ng DNA/µl limit of detection and 53.48 ng DNA/µl limit of quantification. The linearity (R2) between color absorbance changes and DNA concentration is 0.9916. The biosensor has a good specificty as it does not cross-react with DNA of chicken and beef. To verify specificity towards the target sequence, PCR was tested to the target sequence and reacted to the PCR product with the biosensor. The PCR DNA isolate resulted in a 2.7 fold higher absorbance compared to pork-DNA isolate alone (without PCR). The sensitivity and specificity of the method show the promising application of the thiol-bond AuNP biosensor in pork-detection.

Keywords: biosensor, DNA probe, gold nanoparticle (AuNP), pork meat, qPCR

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Authors: M. Pomianek, M. Piszczek, M. Maciejewski

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The binocular eye tracking technology is increasingly being used in industry, entertainment and marketing analysis. In the case of virtual reality, eye tracking systems are already the basis for user interaction with the environment. In such systems, the high accuracy of determining the user's eye fixation point is very important due to the specificity of the virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD). Often, however, there are unknown errors occurring in the used eye tracking technology, as well as those resulting from the positioning of the devices in relation to the user's eyes. However, can the virtual environment itself influence estimation errors? The paper presents mathematical analyses and empirical studies of the determination of the fixation point and errors resulting from the change in the size of the pupil in response to the intensity of the displayed scene. The article contains both static laboratory tests as well as on the real user. Based on the research results, optimization solutions were proposed that would reduce the errors of gaze estimation errors. Studies show that errors in estimating the fixation point of vision can be minimized both by improving the pupil positioning algorithm in the video image and by using more precise methods to calibrate the eye tracking system in three-dimensional space.

Keywords: eye tracking, fixation point, pupil size, virtual reality

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Authors: Lidia Sanchis-Marco, Antonio Rubia, Pedro Serrano

Abstract:

This paper studies the informational content of pricing errors in the term structure of sovereign CDS spreads. The residuals from a non-arbitrage model are employed to construct a Price discrepancy estimate, or noise measure. The noise estimate is understood as an indicator of market distress and reflects frictions such as illiquidity. Empirically, the noise measure is computed for an extensive panel of CDS spreads. Our results reveal an important fraction of systematic risk is not priced in default swap contracts. When projecting the noise measure onto a set of financial variables, the panel-data estimates show that greater price discrepancies are systematically related to a higher level of offsetting transactions of CDS contracts. This evidence suggests that arbitrage capital flows exit the marketplace during time of distress, and this consistent with a market segmentation among investors and arbitrageurs where professional arbitrageurs are particularly ineffective at bringing prices to their fundamental values during turbulent periods. Our empirical findings are robust for the most common CDS pricing models employed in the industry.

Keywords: credit default swaps, noise measure, illiquidity, capital arbitrage

Procedia PDF Downloads 571

Authors: Enyia James Diwa, Isaiah Thank-God Ebi, Dodeye Ina Igbong

Abstract:

The privatization of utilities has brought about very strong competition in industries such as petrochemical and gas distribution among others, considering the continuous increase in cost of fuel. This has brought about the intense reason for gas turbine owners and operators to reduce and control performance degradation of the engine in other to minimize cost. The most common and very crucial problem of the gas turbine is the fouling of compressor, which is mostly caused by a reduction in flow capacity, compressor efficiency, and pressure ratio, this, in turn, lead to the engine compressor re-matching and output power and thermal efficiency reduction. The content of this paper encompasses a detailed presentation of the major causes, effects and control mechanism of fouling. The major emphasis is on compressor water washing to enable power augmentation. A modelled gas turbine similar to that of GE LM6000 is modelled for the current study, based on TURBOMATCH which is a Cranfield University software specifically made for gas turbine performance simulation and fouling detection. The compounded and intricate challenges of compressor online water washing of large output gas turbine are carried out. The treatment is applied to axial compressor used in the petrochemical and hydrocarbon industry.

Keywords: gas turbine, fouling, degradation, compressor washing

Procedia PDF Downloads 352

Authors: P. Slepicka, N. Slepickova Kasalkova, I. Michaljanicova, O. Nedela, Z. Kolska, V. Svorcik

Abstract:

Polymers exposed to laser or plasma treatment or modified with different wet methods which enable the introduction of nanoparticles or biologically active species, such as amino-acids, may find many applications both as biocompatible or anti-bacterial materials or on the contrary, can be applied for a decrease in the number of cells on the treated surface which opens application in single cell units. For the experiments, two types of materials were chosen, a representative of non-biodegradable polymers, polyethersulphone (PES) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) as biodegradable material. Exposure of solid substrate to laser well below the ablation threshold can lead to formation of various surface structures. The ripples have a period roughly comparable to the wavelength of the incident laser radiation, and their dimensions depend on many factors, such as chemical composition of the polymer substrate, laser wavelength and the angle of incidence. On the contrary, biopolymers may significantly change their surface roughness and thus influence cell compatibility. The focus was on the surface treatment of PES and PHB by pulse excimer KrF laser with wavelength of 248 nm. The changes of physicochemical properties, surface morphology, surface chemistry and ablation of exposed polymers were studied both for PES and PHB. Several analytical methods involving atomic force microscopy, gravimetry, scanning electron microscopy and others were used for the analysis of the treated surface. It was found that the combination of certain input parameters leads not only to the formation of optimal narrow pattern, but to the combination of a ripple and a wrinkle-like structure, which could be an optimal candidate for cell attachment. The interaction of different types of cells and their interactions with the laser exposed surface were studied. It was found that laser treatment contributes as a major factor for wettability/contact angle change. The combination of optimal laser energy and pulse number was used for the construction of a surface with an anti-cellular response. Due to the simple laser treatment, we were able to prepare a biopolymer surface with higher roughness and thus significantly influence the area of growth of different types of cells (U-2 OS cells).

Keywords: cell response, excimer laser, polymer treatment, periodic pattern, surface morphology

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Ngan Nguyen

Abstract:

The study analyses adjectives collocating with the word ‘education’ in the American language of the Corpus of Global Web-based English using a combination of corpus linguistic and discourse analytical methods to examine not only language patterns but also social political ideologies around the topic. Significant conclusions are deduced: (1) there are a large number of adjectival collocates of the word education which have been identified and classified into four categories representing four different aspects of education: level, quality, forms and types of education; (2) education, as in combination with three first categories, carries the meaning as the act and process of teaching and learning while with the last category having the meaning of a particular kind of teaching or training; (3) higher education is the topic that gains most concerns from the American public; (4) five most significant ideologies are discovered from the corpus: higher education associates with financial affairs, higher education is an industry, monetary policy of the government on higher education, people require greater accessibility to higher education and people value higher education. The study contributes to the field of developing meanings of words through corpus analysis and the field of discourse analysis.

Keywords: adjectival collocation, American context, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 352

Authors: B. Atli-Veltin, A. Vosteen, D. Megan, A. Jedynska, L. K. Cheng

Abstract:

Composite materials combine the advantages of being lightweight and possessing high strength. This is in particular of interest for the development of large constructions, e.g., aircraft, space applications, wind turbines, etc. One of the shortcomings of using composite materials is the complex nature of the failure mechanisms which makes it difficult to predict the remaining lifetime. Therefore, condition and health monitoring are essential for using composite material for critical parts of a construction. Different types of sensors are used/developed to monitor composite structures. These include ultrasonic, thermography, shearography and fiber optic. The first 3 technologies are complex and mostly used for measurement in laboratory or during maintenance of the construction. Optical fiber sensor can be surface mounted or embedded in the composite construction to provide the unique advantage of in-operation measurement of mechanical strain and other parameters of interest. This is identified to be a promising technology for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) or Prognostic Health Monitoring (PHM) of composite constructions. Among the different fiber optic sensing technologies, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor is the most mature and widely used. FBG sensors can be realized in an array configuration with many FBGs in a single optical fiber. In the current project, different aspects of using embedded FBG for composite wind turbine monitoring are investigated. The activities are divided into two parts. Firstly, FBG embedded carbon composite laminate is subjected to tensile and bending loading to investigate the response of FBG which are placed in different orientations with respect to the fiber. Secondly, the demonstration of using FBG sensor array for temperature and strain sensing and monitoring of a 5 m long scale model of a glass fiber mono-pile is investigated. Two different FBG types are used; special in-house fibers and off-the-shelf ones. The results from the first part of the study are showing that the FBG sensors survive the conditions during the production of the laminate. The test results from the tensile and the bending experiments are indicating that the sensors successfully response to the change of strain. The measurements from the sensors will be correlated with the strain gauges that are placed on the surface of the laminates.

Keywords: Fiber Bragg Gratings, embedded sensors, health monitoring, wind turbine towers

Procedia PDF Downloads 246